PCA caregivers help keep sick, disabled at home

For Marcia Chace, being a personal care assistant is more than a job. It's about taking care of people.

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By SIMÓN RIOS

southcoasttoday.com

By SIMÓN RIOS

Posted Aug. 31, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By SIMÓN RIOS
Posted Aug. 31, 2014 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

NEW BEDFORD — For Marcia Chace, being a personal care assistant is more than a job. It's about taking care of people.

"I became a PCA because of necessity," said Chace, 45, who lives in the North End. "I decided, while mom was sick, I wanted to be involved in the health care."

Chace is one of thousands of personal care assistants across Massachusetts, home health workers who care for those who need an extra hand. Most PCAs work through the Personal Care Attendant Program, a MassHealth initiative designed to keep the sick and disabled at home, avoiding the more costly care of nursing homes and in-patient hospital treatment.

The program, which cost $530 million in fiscal 2014, provides funds to bring low-skilled health workers into the home. They can be complete strangers, but those who qualify to receive PCA services can recruit from family, friends and neighbors as well.

Chace has two patients. One is diabetic and has dementia, while the other is disabled and needs help cooking, cleaning and taking care of personal needs.

Fairhaven resident Donna Dann, 56, said if it wasn't for the PCA program it's likely that she wouldn't be able to stay at home.

"I think that I would probably be put in assisted living," Dann said. "I wouldn't be in my home."

In addition to Chace, who comes to Dann's home five days a week, a second PCA comes on the days Chace isn't there. She said MassHealth covers the entire cost.

PCAs help with the daily necessities seniors can't provide for themselves, whether that means transportation or the preparation of meals. MassHealth decides how many PCA hours an individual requires.

Chace first joined the PCA program seven years ago, through her late mother, who was sick at the time and learned about PCA care. For Chace, it was a way to spend time with her mom during her final days.

But it also meant a steady job.

"We don't have what we used to have here for work," she said of the local economy.

Of the roughly 55,000 PCAs in Massachusetts, about 33,000 work through MassHealth, according to the union 1199 SEIU, which counts those workers among its members. With roughly 50,000 1199 SEIU members in Massachusetts, the PCA workers represent a majority of the union's membership.

The 1199 SEIU organizer Lisa Lemieux leads the charge in the New Bedford area. She said the union is attempting to organize the rest of the PCAs, many of whom work for private agencies across the state.

"We do everything we can to try to communicate with people to let them know that we're here to help, we're here to get their feedback on how they would like their jobs improved," Lemieux said.

The union has done a lot for its members (and non-members) in the way of wages. On July 1 they received a raise from $12.98 to $13.38, and the union is pushing for PCA workers to earn $15. The work is far from through — PCA workers don't get work-based health care, something the union wants to change.

In July union negotiators met with the state with a proposal on health insurance for PCA workers.

"It would be our goal that (PCAs) have the same benefits as all other workers in our commonwealth and in our country," Lemieux said.

In January the union hopes to address some of these issues as negotiations begin for a new contract.

Chace, who in addition to her PCA work is a paid part-time organizer for the SEIU, said PCA workers deserve paid sick time and overtime wages like workers elsewhere in the health care industry.

"You're going to work every day and taking care of somebody that's less fortunate than you are," she said. "The sad part about it is that we're not recognized or taken care of the way we should be."

Muhammad Mahmoud of New Bedford works 20 hours a week caring for his mother.

"Being a PCA means more to me than the living wage, because in a sense it helped me keep my family together," he said. "At the time when I needed to take care of my mother, if I couldn't be a PCA and keep her at home, then she would have had to be hospitalized."

That, Mahmoud said, could have meant his siblings would have ended up in a group home.